Meredith Vieira says farewell

Meredith Vieira said a tearful goodbye to Today with a highlight reel covering her five years behind the desk.

Meredith Vieira bade a tearful goodbye to fans and crew of Today after spending five years ushering in the morning for America.

A tearful Vieira said that leaving the show was "a hard decision, but the right decision."

"I love you all very much," she told her colleagues.

And those colleagues had nothing but accolades for Vieira. Al Roker said he never worked with anyone who was "more about the program," while Ann Curry said Vieira's tough decision was a shining example of how "to live our values."

A highlight reel showed some of Vieira's best work: Interviewing President Barack Obama, Lady Gaga, Jerry Seinfeld and Donald Trump, and covering events like the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, Michael Phelps breaking records in the 2008 Olympics and the 2009 death of Michael Jackson.